Crops for the Future Research Symposium

Research symposia

Between 9-14 December 2012, CFFRC held a series of international workshops on three of the six CFFRC programmes. Hosted at the Marriot Hotel, Putrajaya with the support of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), these workshops brought together leading international researchers from Asia, Europe and Africa with expertise in a wide range of disciplines including:

genetics

physiology

agronomy

computing

geo-spatial studies

engineering

social sciences and marketing

Discussions focussed on research which would make it possible for underutilised crops to make a greater contribution to food, fuel and materials security in the coming decades. The Workshops resulted in the identification of a number of joint projects. Some of these are now being incorporated into CFFRCPlus Scholarships while others have been included in national and international funding applications.

Symposia workshops

Cropbase

The CropBase programme involves the development of a web-based platform for decision support and knowledge sharing about
underutilised crops that will enable different user groups to access information and share expertise. The workshop brought researchers
together to develop a leading edge web architecture that couples geospatial information and crop/trait characteristics through a
common web platform.

BamYield Workshop

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L) Verdc)is a drought tolerant native African legume which is grown in sub-Saharan Africa,
South East Asia and elsewhere. The BamYield workshop brought together researchers from across the world actively involved in collaborative research focussing on the bambara groundnut to review current work and develop multi-national grant applications to follow up on pump priming activities.

Biomass Workshop

BiomassPlus is a CFFRC programme designed to support Malaysia Biomass Initiatives (MBI) with novel crops and technologies. The BiomassPlus workshop brought together research and development stakeholders from the public and private sectors to produce a coherent strategy for the development of an underutilised crop based biomass industry.

FoodPlus Round Table

CFFRC hosted a FoodPlus Round Table discussion on the 30th of April. The event brought together over fifty R&D stakeholders from both the
public and private sectors, including: academics, industry figures, representatives of public bodies and NGOs.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and develop a coherent strategy to help address the escalation of lifestyle diseases currently affecting Malaysia through the promotion of better nutrition and a healthy diet.